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Frank has been to orbit.

Who is Frank Mathys?

I'm fasinated with science and nature. Having lived in Switzerland for 20 years, I became a florist after I studied flowers in a laboratory. I proceeded to cross-breed different types of buds and flowers and created original bouquets. => More information at Flower Delivery Switzerland and Geneva

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Hunting Asteroids

I used to love looking out the window of the International Space Station when we were flying over the dark side of Earth, watching tiny asteroids leave bright trails as they hit the atmosphere hundreds of miles below us. These tiny asteroids also had bigger cousins who have left their mark on our fragile oasis, in places like the Manicouagan Crater in Canada. Countless other asteroids have hit Earth in the past, and we can expect countless more. Most will be harmless impacts but on occasion they’re not.

The Manicouagan impact crater in northern Québec is one of the world’s largest and oldest known impact craters

NASA researchers in the Near-Earth Object Program have their eyes on asteroids — characterizing scientific and exploration benefits while detecting, tracking and analyzing potentially hazardous asteroids and comets. So is B612 Foundation, where I am the chairman and CEO. This is exactly why we have set the Sentinel Project in motion.

NASA and B612 are working together under a Space Act Agreement. B612's mission is to build, launch and operate a space telescope called Sentinel to be placed in orbit around the sun, which will find and track threatening asteroids before they find us.

We have the technology to deflect asteroids (for example, kinetic impactors and gravity tractors) if we have sufficient warning. But for us to employ this technology, we first have to find these asteroids. After all, we can’t protect ourselves from something we haven’t mapped yet!

Sentinel will map the orbits and locations of near-Earth asteroids and give us the decades of warning we need to protect Earth from harmful impacts.

The Sentinel project’s interplanetary mission will complement NASA’s efforts to accomplish its overall NEO detection and tracking mission. By sending observations back to NASA, this model of research and education may enhance our knowledge base and provide additional mission options to inspire future exploration. We are glad to have our project join the Fragile Oasis community. We want to inspire you to create your own project that helps make our planet a better and safer place to live.

Guided by the unique orbital perspective of men and women who live and work in Space, our vision is for Fragile Oasis to help people and organizations work together to overcome the challenges facing humanity on Earth.